Catherine Christer Hennix—Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit

World Premerie of Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit at Stedelijk Museum. Photo by Pieter Kers.

World Premerie of Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo by Pieter Kers.

World Premerie of Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo by Pieter Kers.

Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit is a new work by Catherine Christer Hennix, that premiered at Sonic Acts Academy 2018 with two performances at Stedelijk Museum. The work elaborates on concepts of space – specifically attempting to halt our experience of space-based phenomena – and continues the musician’s ongoing experiments in micro-tonality, just intonation, and the space of sound. Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit draws on distinct computer-generated broken chords derived from Monochromatism (Green), part of Hennix’s previous work Three Monochromatisms – originally developed as the sonic counterpart to one of artist Lucio Fontana’s monochrome light environments. This is the first time Hennix is using a formation involving two amplified double basses, performed by experienced improvisers Benjamin Duboc, Rozemarie Heggen, Hilary Jeffery, and Marcus Pal, who accompany her subtle drone in manners meticulously adapted to the green-lit performance space. The piece is also a reference to Bill Evans’ ballad Blue in Green, made famous by Miles Davis, and follows her lesser-known history as a drummer with famous jazz musicians including Don Cherry, Albert Ayler, Arthur Raimes, and Marc Johnson. It represents a fusion of Hennix’s mathematical interest with traditional practices of sustained pitches in just intonation.

The performance Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit and the exhibition Catherine Christer Hennix: Traversée du Fantasme were organised by Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in collaboration with Sonic Acts as part of their collaborative mission to diversify the canon of sound art.
Part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
Catherine Christer Hennix: composer, computer
Benjamin Duboc: double bass
Rozemarie Heggen: double bass
Hilary Jeffery: live sound
Marcus Pal: computer assistant
Catherine Christer Hennix(US/Sweden/Germany) is a composer, philosopher, mathematician, and visual artist. In the 1960s and 1970s, she worked with illustrious figures such as La Monte Young and Pandit Pran Nath. She has frequently collaborated with the American anti-art philosopher, composer, and violinist Henry Flynt. CC Hennix also drew inspiration from Japanese Gagaku music and the early vocal music of Perotinus and Leoninus. At the invitation of Marvin Minsky, she was affiliated with MIT’s AI Lab in the early 1980s. All her major compositions are a part of an ongoing, endless cycle. She works in Berlin, where, after a long hiatus, she has recently started to perform in public again.